Following a nearly five-hour emergency meeting, the San Diego Opera’s board of directors voted Monday to reset the clock on the opera’s looming liquidation.

Rather than close shop and begin selling assets on April 14, the day after its fourth and final production of “Don Quixote” closes at the Civic Theatre, the opera is giving itself two additional weeks to re-evaluate its financial condition, consider additional options and possibly find a way to go forward for at least another season.

The board voted 35 to 4 to wait until April 29 to take any definitive actions regarding the company’s future in a meeting that included an appearance by Opera America president and CEO Marc Scorca, whose organization represents American opera companies.

"I wanted to convey that other opera companies have faced even more dire circumstances and re-trenched, re-tooled and re-energized -- artistically and administratively -- with notable success," said Scorca after the meeting. "The only way to continue San Diego Opera's important legacy is to envision the future of the company with creativity and determination."

Neither board president Karen Cohn nor general and artistic director and CEO Ian Campbell were available for comment.

Campbell has said the company would need approximately $10 million in contributions (with an additional $6 million in ticket sales) to present a 50th anniversary season in 2015. The season had already been announced in the opera’s program book before the company backtracked.

On March 19, the board unexpectedly voted 33 to 1 to cease operations on April 14 and dismantle the company by the end of the opera’s fiscal year on June 30, citing declining ticket sales and increasing fundraising challenges.

Given the unexpected nature of the vote, especially as the company had reserves and no deficit, there was a considerable public outcry, not only in San Diego, where opera employees and supporters started a petition drive to save the opera, but from the opera community nationwide, including Scorca.

A group of eight board members, including the lone dissenting board member in the original vote and several members who voted to close, sent Cohn and Campbell (who also sits on the board, according to the opera’s federal 990 filings), a detailed request for information.

The letter requested 26 documents, ranging from financial statements to “employment agreements, scope of work and budgets for human resource investigative consultants or counsel over the last six months, if any.”

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The request also suggested that given the absence of detailed information at the March 19 meeting, that the board form “a select committee to review the (requested) documents and provide recommendations to the board including on potential operation options,” which is essentially what happened at Monday’s extended meeting.

A special committee reportedly will examine both the financial and artistic aspects of the company that Campbell has guided since 1983, when he rescued it from a severe financial crisis. It will report its findings to the board at a subsequent meeting prior to April 29.

Members of the board are not the only ones seeking additional information about the opera’s operations. The American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO (AGMA), which represents the opera’s star singers and its chorus members, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the opera last week.

The union has retained labor attorney Hope Singer to “investigate the circumstances of the closing, the rights of the opera singers and to litigate when necessary,” according to a statement.

The union also demanded payment on its 2014-15 and 2015-16 contracts and bargaining over the effects of the closing.

“In addition to commencing an arbitration under the collective bargaining agreement to protect the rights of our members, if our investigation turns up any improprieties, we will immediately move in federal court to freeze the opera’s assets to keep them secure and not squandered on a few highly placed individuals.” said Alan Gordon, the union’s executive director.

According to the union, 25 solo singers have binding future contracts to sing with the opera. The opera’s audited financial statements for fiscal 2013 show “future annual payment requirements to fulfill the lease agreement and contracts” as totaling approximately $9.5 million through 2017.

Both the union and board members have been interested in the details of Campbell’s own contract and that of his ex-wife, the opera’s primary fundraiser, Ann Campbell. For much of the economic downturn, their salaries went up (with “total compensation” for them both peaking at more than $1 million in 2009) while the company’s assets went down. Those assets now total roughly $15 million.

The letter from the group of eight board members asked for employment agreements and “any memos related to the reasonableness of compensation for executive management in accordance with IRS guidance.”